an uneven verse novel that has some lyric flair & a good take on how charming older academic men derail their younger woman students, but also it veers way too far into simplistic girlboss territory. star professors plagiarising their grad students is a massive issue but this book is /very/ heavy-handed and too rosy at the end.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4688390087?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

While I did enjoy this novel and will be recommending it, it did feel like 2 separate entities that had been mashed into one.

The first two thirds were beautifully written, sparse and emotional to read. Tom and Emma’s relationship is volatile and flawed and Reid did a wonderful job at portraying it.

The last third which detailed Emma’s revenge on Tom felt juvenile, not just in its content but the writing was lacking. Had these two threads of the story been separate, had one been chosen and maintained for the whole book, it would’ve been much stronger

The book from the very beginning gripped me. I instantly felt connected to the main character, something that compelled me to understand the relationship she finds herself in. The verse is angry and powerful and a deeply moving creation. I will be recommending this book to others

This book floored me! I've read Louisa Reid's YA verse novels so I was already aware of the quality of her writing but this was on another level. The subject matter makes it a tough read at times but wow, it is just so well done and I raced through the final third (pausing only to marvel at the quality of the verse). Absolutely breathtaking.

Emma is in a toxic relationship with her old university professor Tom and she feels as though she is losing control. But she doesn’t understand why. She feels trapped and isolated, but is it her who is causing this?

Written in poetic form, this is such an incredibly clever and well written book. I absolutely loved it. The storyline is great, you can empathise with Emma, dislike for Tom and as the book progresses, you feel as though you are personally involved in helping Emma to get even.

One of the best books I’ve read for a long time, would absolutely recommend.

This was an enjoyable read that was beautifllu written with an edge. The writing was good and I loved the setting. The narrative may take some time to get used to and won't be for everyone as it is written in verse but overall an enjoyable read.

I, for one, can never get enough of campus novels but Louisa Reid’s “The Poet” adds a distinct twist to the genre, and lands itself firmly between other books like Mark Prins’ “The Latinist”. Following a bright scholar named Emma living in the shadows of her former, older professor Tom, each verse is filled with tension and rage, and capitulates in a satisfying ending.

The poems are tough and jagged but you'll like it that way because it strikes the heart and mind with sharp relativity that you can't deny.
Some of us have felt the emotions that poet expresses in her poems, raw and sharp, this book of poetry is a gem.

This made me want to read more novels in verse.

The familiarity - the banality! - of it all makes me feel slightly sick: the charismatic professor, sleek and self-satisfied, the brilliant student who can't believe her luck when his attentions are focused on her, the nauseasting descent from confidence into confusion and fear and smallness.

The denouement felt too easy, somehow, wish fulfilment rather than reality, but maybe that's no bad thing. We need some optimism about such things. And the final stanzas did give me a breath of true hope, a lift of belief that maybe Emma will be ok, that maybe everyone who has been pulled too far into the orbit of someone like Tom will be ok.

On a technical front I am sure others are better placed to judge, but I loved the writing and will be looking for more works like this, from Louisa Reid and others.

My thanks to Transworld Publishers and NetGalley for the ARC.

Louisa Reid's The Poet is a brilliantly written storey in verse. I've read a few of her books before and appreciated them all for their depth of emotion and examination of significant subjects, and The Poet is no exception. The dysfunctional relationship between Emma and Tom is chillingly conveyed; we see how Tom's public persona of charm is exposed behind closed doors through his manipulative and bullying behaviour toward Emma, and how Emma reaches breaking point, thanks to the writer's powerful verse and striking phrases. It's sad to read at times, since you get a sense of how imprisoned Emma is, and how things began off so blissfully. Louisa Reid tells this storey with a superb use of words and some wonderful flips of phrase.

What a stunning book! I loved the writing and there were so many moments where it broke my heart. I can't wait to read more by this author.

The Poet is a beautifully and intelligently written novel in verse by Louisa Reid. I've previously read several of her novels and enjoyed and admired them all for the depth of emotion and exploration of important themes, and the convincing character portraits, and The Poet is no exception. The dysfunctional relationship between Emma and Tom is chillingly conveyed; through the powerful verse and striking phrases used by the writer we see how Tom's public persona of charm is exposed through his manipulative and bullying behaviour towards Emma behind closed doors, and how Emma reaches breaking point, and it seems she will be belittled no longer. It's very sad to read at times, feeling how trapped Emma seems, and how things had started out happily. Louisa Reid uses language beautifully to tell this tale, with some wonderful turns of phrase.

It's rare for me to read a book that truly blows me away; sweeps me off my feet and leaves me dazed and confused in the aftermath when facing reality once more. This is one of those.

This is the story of Emma, a young and promising poet who studied at Oxford and began a relationship with one of her lecturers. At the age of 25, she is unmoored; working on a thesis and a successfully published poet, but subject to a relationship so toxic that her confidence is shredded and as a result. nothing she produces is ever good enough.

I absolutely loved how raw and visceral this is; its intimacy reaching out of the pages to strike the reader straight in the heart. Anyone who has ever suffered from imposter syndrome will feel parts of this novel reach straight into your own soul. At many points I felt completely seen, with Reid describing my own feelings in relation to the world in a way far more eloquent and fitting than I could possibly ever express. It also offers an incredibly accurate (at times to the point of being painful to read) account of the impact of gaslighting, with Reid expertly painting the specific scene of claustrophobia and helplessness with perfect clarity.

Moreover, I enjoyed all of the references to art, poetry and mythology throughout this work, showing an intrinsic reverence towards external expression through words and images. Notable features seemed to include many of my favourite works (e.g. Shakespeare's The Tempest, Eliot's The Wasteland) which I enjoyed inferring meaning from. Eerily, I've also recently begun reading into the relationship between Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal which is explicitly referenced here. Impeccable.

What I particularly adored, however, were the astute observations of the affect of social class alienation in environments of excessive wealth and privilege. Having myself attended Oxford, it was incredibly cathartic to read that this inferiority complex is something that isn't unique, despite being unspoken.

Emma's journey will certainly offer a mirror into the lives of many, as it did mine. Ultimately, I think it reads as a narrative of female strength and triumph over adversity.

Sincerely, I think this book was an absolute work of art. The highest of recommendations.

I have to admit I was astonished by this breathless work.

I didn’t realise the writing was going to be poetry throughout, and originally I was a bit off-put. Poetry isn’t something I tend to err towards, certainly not when it is book-length, but I’m thrilled in a way that I didn’t realise, because otherwise I would have completely missed this evocative gem of a volume, and I’ve learnt to be more open-minded as a result!

The verses, which do read as a novel in themselves once you settle in, are completely captivating. It is incredible how much you can say in so little. Emma’s story is certainly not the first, or the last, of manipulation and gas-lighting within the academic community (and relationships as a whole). It is devastating and simultaneously proof of Reid’s talent that I think every reader will see a little part of themselves within this profound, creative volume.

Thank you so, so much to NetGalley and Transworld for the privilege.

I absolutely loved this book. The lyrical poetry form of the novel kept it being fast paced and exciting. So much was said with few carefully chosen words. Captivating and dark, I am eager to see what Louisa Reid publishes next!

Emma is 25 and a promising poet and PhD student at Oxford. She is researching into a long forgotten female poet named Charlotte Mew whose work she uncovered and analyses. When she, the girl from the north and a middle-class family, came to the prestigious college, she felt like not belonging, her accent revealed her background, but her professor Tom saw something in her. He didn’t tell her that he was still married with kids and she didn’t mind. Now, years later, she finds herself in a toxic relationship. The renowned professor knew how to manipulate the young woman with low self-esteem doubting herself. Despite the success with her own poems, he can exert control over her, her thinking and cleverly gaslights her. He goes even further until she reaches a point where she has to decide to either give up herself or fight.

Louisa Reid’s novel “The Poet” is the portrait of a young woman who encountered the wrong man at the wrong time. She falls for her teacher who is charming, who sparks something in her, who makes her feel special and talented. Yet, she does not realise at which point this positive energy turns into the negative and when his second face is revealed. The power he has over her, the power his position attributes him, bring her into an inferior position from which it is hard to be believed and to escape.

The arrangement of power the author chooses is well-known: male vs. female, older vs. younger, rich background vs. middle class, academic vs. working class. All factors play out for Tom and from the start put him into the position of control. Emma, young and naive, is only too eager to succumb to it since she falls for his intellect and charm. He is idolised by students as well as his colleagues, quite naturally she is flattered by his attention.

On the other hand, we have the manipulative scholars who knows exactly what makes his female students tick. He has noticed Emma’s talent and knows how to profit from it. Systematically, he makes her feel inferior, stresses her weak points – her background, her family, the lack of money – keeps her from progressing with her work. He makes himself the Ubermensch in her view and manages to keep her close as he needs her, too. Not emotionally, but in a very different way.

Wonderfully written in verse and yet, it reads like a novel. Heart-wrenching at times, analytical at others the book immediately seduces and keeps you reading on.

As a complete poetry Novice, I’m not sure why I was draw to this book, I think it was a combination of the name and the front cover. And I will be honest I didn’t think it would be structured in this way until I started reading it, But I am glad I did. This was not a negative and I really enjoyed the flow of this book.
The Poet explores coercive control and dysfunctional relationships in a way which grips the reader. I couldn't put this book down.

4/5 stars

I received a copy of this book thanks to Netgalley, but all comments are my own.

'You have failed to bury me
deep in the footnotes,
nor squeezed me into the well
of your fountain pen.
I have slipped out from under the butter dish,

the human remains wholly here.'

How would you feel if a mirror were to relentlessly hang on to your reflection even when you do not want it to? Louisa Reid’s poetry will do just that. Strip you naked in the midst of the blankness of your existence; commit to the page the interior bleedingness of your life. Make you look at yourself: an ‘incognito’, a ‘tabula rasa’, ‘deflated’ and unnoticed. Eternally ‘slipping away’; ‘out of print’ in your own life,

'Estranged from
them
and from
myself'

The Poet is a powerful work, that feels real, intimate, and rings of truth. It is a narrative poem fragmented and fragmentary, held together by the motif of ‘rubbish’ and the ‘evidence of atrophy’, by the excruciating coming to oneself. It is about self-shrinking in the toxicity of relationships, about the spaces and gaps between people, the pervading iciness, and indifference. About the indistinct volume of roads leading nowhere, and the ‘impermanent impressions’ that we all are.

The storyline has a certain allure to it: a student become lover of her professor at Oxford University. And yet, the poetry hollows out its seductiveness, and you become the maker of your own disintegrated disillusionment.

The perspective is female, though not feminist. It resists abstraction, wholly surrendering itself to the awkward blush of piercing intimacy. The lucidity of the poetic voice is, to my mind, positively astounding. Its thematic strands interweave and take a life of their own, a life of thoughts, words, emotions. I particularly love how the narrative gives way to the poetic and vice versa, while intensely delving into:

1. the mythologisation of the intellectual figure or the educator: defined as the ‘Ubermensch’, ‘half human, half mythology’, ‘Odysseus’, a ‘legend’, and so on
2. toxicity, silence, and bubbling resentment in manipulative relationships – a ‘duel’ of sorts
3. the nullification / fortification of the self: the condition of ‘self-lessness’, the self as adrift and irretrievable, but also the soul’s pining, ‘lost in the wasteland of what was’, ‘the wasteland of the future’, yet ‘starving’ (the titles often refer to ‘hunger’ or ‘thirst’), yearning to ‘emerge out of this cell’, and discover the ‘recipe/for survival’
4. revenge and sisterhood, the double-sided coin that alone offers escape from self-abnegation

I particularly enjoyed how the love of poetry and the word stands as a theme in its own right. How Reid structures the text around the poetry of a relatively unknown English poet, Charlotte Mew, and pays humble homage to Hardy, Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’, Beckett, Rossetti, Keats, Shakespeare’s sonnets, Shelley, Plath, Dickinson, and many more.

The Poet is absolutely stunning. Silently seductive, touching and mesmerising. There is something chilling and petrifying in its sober portrayal of the disastrous messiness that make up a life, in tracing the survival instinct at work towards a phoenix-like revival from the ashes.

The title might be overly ambitious, but this here is a poet in the making.

4.5 survival stars.

Thanks go to NetGalley, author, and publisher for this ARC. All thoughts expressed here are my own.

It's not often you find a decent verse novel for adults but I savoured this one. Emma Eliot is an Oxford undergraduate and aspiring poet from a working-class background ('infra dig' she thinks) who decided at fifteen to get out of her hometown by studying at the prestigious university. While there, she falls for Tom, her charismatic tutor who all the undergraduate girls are in love with.

Four years after graduation, Emma is lost and drifting in his small Oxford home (the author brilliantly sums up the dank, rainy and stifling qualities of the place). At twenty-one, she seemed to have it all - a first-class degree, a relationship with Tom and a slim, prizewinning volume of poetry - some of which was plagiarised, the first hint that this book is going to end up being about authorship and ownership artistically as well as emotionally and domestically.

Emma's thesis on the little-known poet Charlotte Mew has been gathering dust, but Tom has his eye on it and this realisation encourages Emma to join forces with someone - anyone - to take back what's hers. Tom's ex-wife and his colleague aren't up for helping her, and nor is new lover Ari whose loyalties lie partly with the prof - but one of Tom's new undergraduate students, Lois, might be able to help. A galvanising exploration of men's and women's lives in the arts, and their multiple injustices when seen side by side.